Tour of Ascoli

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Hi All,
Today started as usual with studio, I think they require us to be at studio all the time because it is their way of babysitting us without saying it.  So after we did that we had a very interesting walking tour today.  We leared all about A.P. and the historical significance.  It seems we are not the only school that travels here to do studies with the Italain school.  They have another group from California comming in after we leave.  More people will be participating in that program.  I am not sure if they are fluent in Italain but there are posters up eveywhere. 
So back to the tour,  the fourth year students got us in a little bit of trouble, they were laughing and playing during the tour.   It seems there were taking pictures of  each other's buts and found it funny how the jeans did not fit they thought they did on their own buts.  Yes the entertainment we  come up with to amuse our selves.  Most of the thrid year pretended to be intrested and did not giggle.  I love history so I found the tour very very intresting.  And it did help me with my analysis in the Popilo.  So  we learned the Ascoli Peceno has a perticular limestone that is specific to this regon, which makes their buildings actually start off in a diffrent shade of white. A.P was irginally a Roman town so it has an Cardo and Deco road, with the popilo in almost in the center where they meet. 
They also marked their houses in stone above the entry for all to know they lived there, even to this day we know who lived there. 
Also one of the house  we looked out had two very big chunks of wood taken out of the sides of it,  as out guide explaned the people who had built the house were a very predominant family and very powerfull.  Well one of the men of the house had killed another man.  Only they could not do much to him he was too powerfull but they had to do something so they required him to deface two sides of his family's house (by taking away chuncks of the cornerstones) so that all would know he had done this.  I am glad we do not practice this today Damer would have been a free man but had a very structuraly unsound house. 
We also so the castle, don't know if I would call it that but it is a very big will with a church attached to the back that makes a great picture.  There is also a funny little story that goes with that one also.  It seems the bridge that connected the bank to the wall was built in one night.  The man who did this wanted to be know for something so he made a deal with the  devil and volia over night you have bridge.  They have since found that it dates to Rome occupation of the town so it is not possible that had really happened.
The churches here are much more plain, they are huge but are more towards the romanesque error than than the gothic.  The insides of a lot of the churches were converted to gothic, but are under restoration to return them to their built state. 
So when I get to post pictures I will put that up here and show you some of the items.
Well Talk to you later

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